Early Modern (Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism)

In the first years of the 20th century, painters broke with the idea that a picture must imitate what the eye sees. The Fauves, led by Henri Matisse and including Albert Marquet, used pure, intense colour for its own sake; Cubism, developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, broke objects into facets seen from several viewpoints at once.

Expressionists in Germany and Austria, from the Blue Rider circle of Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and Paul Klee to Egon Schiele in Vienna, distorted form and colour to express inner feeling, and Kandinsky moved towards complete abstraction. Others, like Amedeo Modigliani with his elongated portraits and Georges Rouault with his heavy black outlines, followed highly personal paths.